Dr. Franklin
.]] Dr. Franklin, once employed by the OSI, was a brilliant scientist and a leading pioneer in cybernetic technology alongside his rival Dr. Rudy Wells. The quarrels between Franklin and Rudy were often due to the allocation of funds for their dueling projects. Wells was developing the CYBORG Project/Bionics which eventually led to the technology to create the world's first bionic man, Steve Austin. Franklin, on the other hand, proposed that the OSI allocate funds to help create his Robot Project, a pure cybernetic soldier/agent for the government. Franklin believed his robots would be far superior than Rudy's bionic/human hybrid. However, Rudy was eventually awarded the funding for his CYBORG Project by the OSI. Under the supervision of Oliver Spencer, Dr. Franklin made his first breakthrough in a prototype weather control satellite which won overwhelming support from top directors at the OSI. Although Spencer rejected Franklin’s proposal for funding his robot soldier project, Franklin’s working relationship with the OSI remained fair. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse when Oscar Goldman succeeded Spencer’s former position as head of the OSI. Franklin’s grandiose delusions about using the weather control satellite as a devastating weapon clashed with Goldman’s ideas in benefiting geographical problems such as controlling floods and irrigating dry desert climates. Their continuing quarrels eventually led to Franklin's termination of employment at the OSI and his weather control satellite being shelved. Seven years after Franklin's dismissal from the OSI, he devised a plan to get back at Oscar Goldman and to regain control of his experimental weather control device. Due to Franklin's association with Russian finance minister Baron Constantine, he was able to build his first fembot, which he named Katy. Katy (AKA Fembot #1) was indistinguishable between robot and human; flawless down to the final detail, even to a trained eye. She served as Franklin's assistant, along with Dr Rawlins. Franklin soon established a covert base at an old abandoned OSI complex and proceeded to construct several more prototype fembots while sending Rawlins and Katy to keep a close eye on the OSI’s top secretaries, Lynda Wilson and Peggy Callahan. It was only a matter of time before Franklin needed additional funding to begin phase one of his plan to take back his weather control device and his request resulted in Baron Constantine being sent to check on his progress. Upon his arrival at Franklin’s base, the skeptical and annoyed Constantine was greeted by Katy as she assisted Franklin on his tour and revealed his creations. Furious upon realizing that Franklin had spent all of their money on the fembots, which he quickly dismissed as “ridiculous looking mannequins that couldn’t fool anyone”, he threatened to have Franklin killed. The first investment was for the sole purpose of obtaining a plan to steal the weather control device and the baron had no confidence in the fembots’ ability to infiltrate the OSI. Franklin was quick to convince Constantine otherwise by removing Katy’s face mask, thus revealing her identity as a fembot. The shocked and bewildered Constantine immediately vouched for Franklin’s request to his superiors for an additional ten million dollars in funds Upon receiving the additional funding, Franklin was able to complete the finishing touches on two additional fembot duplicates of Lynda Wilson and Peggy Callahan, both whom he intended to abduct and replace to infiltrate the OSI. He soon dispatched a team consisting of Rawlins, posing as a maintenance worker driving a delivery van, with both Katy and the fembot duplicate of Lynda Wilson hiding in the back. They drove to the OSI parking lot to wait for the real Lynda to leave work to kidnap her. Unbeknownst to Franklin, who was monitoring the kidnapping, a nearby Jaime Sommers heard Lynda’s cry for help and rushed to her rescue, only to be nearly run down by a car being driven by the fembot duplicate. When Jaime asked if she called for help, the fembot denies it. Jaime also picked up the fembot’s high-pitched transistor hum and quickly dismissed the sounds that she was hearing as a possible defect in a recent upgrade that Rudy Wells had installed to her bionic hearing. Both Franklin and Constantine were intrigued by this development and wondered if she could be a potential threat to their plans. Later that same night, Callahan was also kidnapped and replaced by her fembot double. She had been talking to Jaime on the phone, who heard the same high-pitched hum as before. The following morning, both fembots assumed their posts at the OSI. Franklin ordered them to investigate this Jaime Sommers woman and he soon realized that she was bionic, after monitoring the tests Rudy Wells was conducting on her. Upon realizing that Jaime, with her bionic hearing, could detect the high-pitched transistor signal that the fembots emit, he immediately altered the operational 'frequency' to eliminate the signal and proceeded with the next phase of his plan - to kidnap Oscar Goldman. Later that day, Oscar invited Jaime out to lunch and they agreed to meet in the parking lot at noon. With the ability to see and hear everything through the Callahan fembot, Franklin once again sent Rawlins and Katy back to the OSI parking lot to await Oscar's arrival. They successfully abducted Oscar while rendering Jaime unconscious when she tried to stop them. Within hours, Oscar was brought to Franklin's complex as a prisoner. For the first time in seven years, Franklin stood face to face with Oscar and proceeded to taunt his former superior from the OSI. He gloated about the success of his fembots’ infiltration of the OSI to Oscar and revealed his plan to retake his weather control machine with the aid of his robots. All Oscar Goldman can do is stand by helplessly as his prisoner, powerless to stop him. Meanwhile, after the reports of Oscar’s abduction, the head of the NSB, Jack Hanson, convened the top employees of the OSI for an interrogation on the events leading to Oscar’s abduction. The fembot of Callahan is very evasive in her answers to Hanson and contradictory to the conversations the real Callahan had with Jaime the day before. Jaime’s suspicions were aroused by the new, strange behavior from Callahan. That night, Jaime went to Callahan’s apartment, giving the appearance that she was apologizing for doubting her and attempting to mend their friendship. However, she then probed deeper about their prior personal conversations. When the monitoring Franklin commanded the fembot of Callahan to answer in the negative, Jaime outed the fembot as an imposter. He then ordered the fembot to capture her and bring her in. The fembot grabs Jaime’s arm. Refusing to be taken prisoner, a fight broke out between Jaime and the fembot. When Jaime attempted to escape through the front door, she found Katy waiting to intercept her. During their struggle, Jaime knocked the face mask off of Katy. Frightened by the menacing, inhuman sight of Katy and the fembot’s freakish strength that knocked her across the room, Jaime attempted to escape through the back window. Franklin commanded the two fembots to pursue Jaime, forcing her to jump. The extreme height caused severe damage to her bionic legs upon landing. The limbs short-circuit and sparkle as Jaime crumpled to the pavement, unconscious. Franklin then ordered the fembots to return to base Later that night, the beaten Jaime lay close to death in the hospital. Delirious, she tried to warn Rudy about the robots while he was in the process of starting a bionic shutdown to prevent another bionic rejection that nearly killed her two years prior. The fembot duplicate of Lynda looks on as Franklin orders the robot to kill Jaime should she reveal their identity. Through the eyes and ears of the Lynda fembot that is registering everything that is going on at Rudy’s lab and the OSI, Franklin soon learns of Colonel Steve Austin’s arrival and joining in on the investigation. He soon discovers that Steve, like Jaime, is also bionic. As he continues to monitor Steve's investigation, he watches as Steve contacts an OSI satellite (with the fembots' transistor signal's frequency number provided by Jaime ). Within moments the satellite provided Steve's computer with the exact location of its source giving the latitude and longitude of his base. Franklin then prepares to set up a trap in anticipation of Steve's arrival. It was only hours later when Katy informed Franklin of Steve's arrival by helicopter. It was time for him to spring his trap on the bionic OSI operative. While Steve wanders the outside of the complex, the fembot dublicate (posing as the real captive)Callahan, summons him to rescue her from her cell window. While the unsuspecting Steve helps free the disguised fembot from it's prison, behind the nearby corner Katy is poised ready to spring to action. Franklin watches as the other fembot leads Steve to Katy's position. When Franklin gave the attack, Katy attemps to strike Steve with an iron rod but hits Callahan instead, accidentally knocking the other fembot's facemask off and thus exposing her as a fembot. Steve grabs another nearby iron rod and defends himself against the engaging fembots. He holds his own at first but the two fembots eventually corners him. The monitoring Franklin's taunts Steve for being outnumbered two to one and orders him to surrender. Steve retaliates by hurling his iron rod at a distant transmission panel damaging it, rendering the fembots berserk. After defeating the fembots’ attack, Steve enters Franklin’s complex. He discovers and frees the captive Lynda Wilson .then makes his way to the control room. Franklin, as he was making his escape, tries to stop him by activating two sliding steel doors to close in on the bionic operative. On his way to pursue the escaping Franklin, Steve also finds and frees the captive Oscar who informs him of Callahan’s untimely death. Franklin’s sends his armed guards to go after Steve, Oscar and Lynda to help insure his own escape. The Guards fire upon Steve and Oscar, who was making their own escape. One of the stray bullets impacts a control panel setting fire to the complex. The prisoners successfully make their way out of Franklin’s complex and then escape the grounds by helicopter. Back on the ground, Franklin reveals his triumph of having duped the enemy to the captive Callahan (who is not dead as Oscar previously told Steve earlier ). His plan worked. He will now destroy this base to make the OSI believe that they succeeded, after which he will proceed to his other complex to begin the next phase of his plan. Soon after, on the advice of the recently rescued Oscar Goldman, the Secretary of the State gives the order for the Weather Control System is to be transferred to a safer place for precautionary measures. The fact that the OSI have no proof that Franklin was killed in the explosion that destroyed his base is still a potential security risk to the project. Unbeknownst to the government, this new location is Franklin’s second covert base. A suspicious Steve soon enters Oscar Goldman’s office while Oscar was phoning in the orders and the new location to the weather control device. Discreetly, Steve throws in the path of where Oscar was walking. When Oscar unwittingly stepped on the pencil, it got crushed by the extreme weight into tiny fragments .One possible conclusion: Oscar is a robot. Everything goes smoothly according to Franklin’s plan.. However Franklin is on to Steve’s suspicions. In order to maintain complete control over the operations and the OSI, Steve Austin must be neutralized. Robot Oscar makes an impromptu entrance into Rudy Well’s lab interrupting what looks to be a suspicious conversation between Rudy and Steve. He orders Steve to go out to Hawaii on a special mission and despite the urgency Steve declines, stating more pressing matters in Washington. The robot Oscar accedes to Steve’s request to delay the mission until the following day. Over at Franklin’s new complex at Saint Emil's Island, the real captive Oscar watches Steve’s rejection of a robot’s direct order. He tries to fibs to Franklin about his operative’s often insubordinate behavior in turning him down on many assignments but Franklin is not convinced. He orders his robot Oscar to dispose of Steve Austin. ''' The robot Oscar then contacts the NSB and issues a warrant for Steve’s arrest on the suspicion of his being one of Franklin’s robots. Jack Hanson follows orders and soon corners Steve in the OSI parking lot. A Geiger counter scan reads a high level of radiation from Steve’s bionic limbs. Steve makes his escape evading Hanson’s attempt to arrest him. Hours after learning that Steve Austin’s escaped, the robot Oscar receives a call from Rudy Wells claiming that Jaime Sommers woke up screaming hysterically that she had proof of Oscar being a robot. Upon hearing that Jaime has been sedated, Franklin commands the robot Oscar to go to Jaime’s room and kill her..What Franklin didn’t know was Rudy and Steve has set up a trap for his robot. Rudy has created a microwave device that will scramble the robot’s signals. The robot enters Jaime’s room and proceeds to kill what looks to be a sleeping patient. As Rudy, who is hiding behind a back curtain, activates the microwave emitter, the audio and video signal from the robot ceases sending static to franklins video monitors. Franklin believes it to be a malfunction when in actuality the robot is carrying out Franklin’s last command. The trap is sprung and it’s Steve that leaps out of the hospital bed. A fight breaks out between the robot and the bionic operative but eventually Steve defeats the robot putting the deadly machine out of commission for good. The defeat of the robot Oscar was only a minor setback for Franklin for the components for the Weather Control Device has arrived at his base (courtesy of his robot Oscar). His crew consisting of fembot labor had it assembled and activated within days. It was time for him to make an active demonstration. He reactivates the fembot Linda, frightening off the real Linda Wilson who was working in Rudy Wells' lab at the time. Appearances * "Kill Oscar" * "Kill Oscar (Part II)" * "Kill Oscar (Part III)" * "Fembots in Las Vegas" (flashback scene) * "Fembots in Las Vegas (Part II)" (mentioned only) Franklin, Dr. Franklin, Dr.